Farm Dog Stories – Bones…

Possession, they say, is nine tenths of the law, and that is certainly true for a dog and its bone.

Our young Clumber spaniel, Holly, found a really delicious bone in one of our fields. It was long and straight, probably a red deer shin bone, and Holly carried it around everywhere. Sometimes she parked it in a special place, in one of the farm buildings or a corner of a field, but she always knew exactly where it was. If one of the other dogs went anywhere near it she was there in an instant, growling furiously.

This happened when I was checking the sheep that were grazing a field on the other side of the valley. Holly suddenly came pounding passed me, shooting down the field at breakneck speed going faster than I had ever seen her run. The reason soon became obvious. From 200 yards up the hill she had spotted Teazal getting just that bit too close to where she had left her bone. She landed on the bone in a sort of somersault, and managed to growl at the same time.

Sadly for Holly, though, possession is just nine tenths of the law, and when senior dog Jessie, our old Springer spaniel, decided it was time she had the bone, that was it. A very dejected Holly sat in the middle of the yard watching Jessie devour the bone at her leisure.

Eventually, by way of compensation, Holly went and helped herself to a very large courgette from the garden. This she also carried around for a few days, but it wasn’t quite the same.